France launches new anti-jihad advertising campaign

PARIS — With interactive videos and testimonies from families torn apart by Islamic extremism, France's government is launching a new online campaign aimed at preventing young people from joining jihad.

The campaign launched Friday includes an interactive exercise where users can pretend to be a young person considering jihad.

It's the latest of several government efforts to counter the slick propaganda of the Islamic State group, which has leveraged social media to draw in hundreds of disillusioned French people and has staged several deadly attacks on France.

The government said in a statement that 5,700 suspected radicals have been flagged to authorities by family or acquaintances since 2014.

Government prevention and deradicalization efforts have had limited success in the past, in part because many people attracted to extremism are distrustful of authorities.